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Update. Yakima will be producing a set for the x3 that fits inside of doors. Not sure when. With a mighty mount conversion all Yakima should fit on Thule aero blade system. The aero blade and the BMW stock system seem very similar so the mighty mounts should fit both. Etrailer has the Thule system for $372. BMW of towson on amazon has the BMW stock system for $229. So unless anyone can think of a reason why the Thule is a better value it would seem that BMW wins the day. Hope this helps everyone.

I just added the Thule 460R podiums and the Thule ARB47 47 Inch AeroBlade Load Bars to my X3 and it makes the car look great. Wind noise is much less than the square bars. I will try to upload a photo. You are limited to the width of the roof for accessories though. Go to the Rack Attack website, very helpful.

I've had the BMW bars on two other bimmers and hated them - very noisy and ugly with limited accessories - will never use BMW racks again.

I put the front cross bar just behind the sunroof opening to lessen the wind noise with the sunroof open. With the bars only, you can enjoy the sunroof, but when you add carriers, especially the sup taxi, wind noise is bad enough that you have to keep the cover closed at highway speeds. This would be a major downside to the Q5, as it only has a mesh cover with no sound insulation.

Another issue is that the roof antenna is tall enough it could interfere with kayaks/canoes unles the carrier lifts them up a bit.